Godaddy VS Bluehost For WordPress: Which One Is Better?

Hosting is the foundation of your site and business. A slight downtime could hurt your brand and may ruin everything you’ve worked hard for over the years. Now, if you’re serious about your site, then make sure that you get a good host.

Nowadays, there are several companies that offer tempting promotions. Two of the most popular web hosts available are GODaddy and BlueHost. But before you think about using one of them, take a look at their functionalities. From there, you can decide which of the two can offer you the best web hosting service.

This review is for personal websites or average small business owners who are looking for standard (shared) hosting plans.

GoDaddy

You only get a one free domain name in the first year with a purchase of a 12-month (and above) hosting plan.

GoDaddy only offers FULL refund for 45 days for those that purchase annual plans, while you only have 48 hours for the monthly plan; With BlueHost, you have 3 days to get FULL refund (domain + hosting) or 45 days to get hosting refund minus the domain registration ($10).

Speed: Tie

Honestly, this depends really on your traffic and the plan you have. Both are fast. I’ve never really experienced any downtime with them. Just 1 or 2 (I think).

Ease of Use: BlueHost wins

I think GoDaddy’s control panel looks sleek and all, but when you actually use it, it’s pretty confusing. It took me some time to figure out how their interface works.

As a web developer, I usually figure out stuff easily but it’s different on GoDaddy, the structure of their interface is terrible – very unorganized and overwhelming.

On the other hand, Bluehost’s control panel is beast. Enhanced and very easy to use.

Support: BlueHost wins

24/7 Support: BlueHost can be reached 24/7 via live chat, phone and email while GoDaddy has the same support system except the live chat. How about the people that don’t have money to call? From what I remember, GoDaddy had a live chat and it was hard to find…I just tried checking again but it looks like they got rid of it.

Both companies have nice staff, but I’d say Bluehost has the best customer service – they actually have the knowledge and skills unlike GoDaddy, the staff are quite inconsistent. Some are great, some sucks. I remember how I had to call GoDaddy at least 3 times to get one simple thing resolved.

Bluehost’s live chat can be quite slow in responding sometimes (especially in the mornings) but it’s not as slow as GoDaddy. The maximum wait time I had was like 20+ minutes while GoDaddy’s phone support took up to 30-45min to get on the phone with someone and I found it really frustrating (happened twice or thrice).

Help Section: GoDaddy’s FAQ/help section is quite confusing and hard to follow and some instructions are outdated. BlueHost’s online knowledgebase is the bomb! Easy step by step instructions and I love how they include screenshot to make sure their users can follow through.

To me, support is very important especially if you’re a newbie or not familiar with all these web hosting stuff. You’d want a fast, knowledgeable and skillful person to help you when you break something or in case something happened to your site.

Pricing (in USD): Tie

It’s quite hard to compare GoDaddy and BlueHost on pricing because the plans they offer are very different.

BlueHost has 1 plan – which has everything unlimited but it has 12 month minimum agreement, while GoDaddy has 3 packages you can choose from, and the minimum plan agreement is 1-3 months but you get very LIMITED features so if you want use another feature, you will have to pay extra.

If I compare GoDaddy’s Deluxe plan and BlueHost‘s plan which both have the same features, you will save more money with BlueHost for the 36-month term – GoDaddy charges $4.49/mo while BlueHost charges $3.95/mo. But on the 12-month and 24-month terms, you’re saving more money with GoDaddy. GoDaddy charges $4.49/mo while Bluehost charges $5.95/mo and $4.49/mo.

If you only plan to host 1 website, then GoDaddy’s economy package is for you. The features you get from this plan is very limited though.

The pricing is pretty much the same, but you save money with BlueHost for the long term. It really depends on the features you need.

BUT… don’t forget about their MONEY BACK GUARANTEE policy. It’s super important. You don’t want to get stuck in case your host becomes unbearable. Read on to the next part for the refund policy.

Money Back Guarantee: BlueHost

Unlike BlueHost, GoDaddy doesn’t have a ‘money back guarantee anytime’. With BlueHost, you can easily get your money back ‘anytime’ without breaking a sweat (I know because I’ve tried it a ton of time).

Here’s how BlueHost works: You can cancel within 30 days for a full refund minus the domain fee. You only have 3 days to get a full refund on domain and hosting. After 30 days, you can still get out of BlueHost and get a prorated refund for the remainder of your current hosting terms.

Here’s how GoDaddy works: Get a full refund within 45 days for annual products or 48 hours for monthly products. After 45 days, you will get ‘in-store’ credit for any unused time remaining on your annual plan.

So basically, BlueHost plan is non-contractual so you can get out anytime you want to, while GoDaddy only offer ‘in-store’ credit after 45 days. Let’s say you purchased a 3 year term, you will only get ‘in-store’ credit, not your money.

Overall: BlueHost Wins

Okay, let’s be honest here. I’m not a fan of GoDaddy at all but I tried not to be biased. I’m trying to avoid GoDaddy as much as I can but most of my clients use them so I have no choice but to deal with it.

I’ve had a lot of bad experiences with them – especially with their support system and control panel. Whenever I can’t figure out something, I usually have to call them twice or thrice and it takes some time before I get the right person to solve a problem and it can be really frustrating.

I’m not saying GoDaddy is bad in all aspects, but they could be better. I always feel like they’re more on getting sales rather than giving quality service.

So I definitely recommend using BlueHost especially if you’re a novice. They’re reliable and super easy to reach. When I talk to them, I feel like they actually care about you (hey, it’s what I feel!).

But remember, when choosing one over the other, you should consider the type of features and tools that your website will need. These two services can help you publish and maintain a successful website. They only differ with their pricing policies and some features.

Comments

Gee, I wish I had seen this a few months ago before we built our new websites with GoDaddy hosting. The web designer did say GoDaddy was difficult to use, but he never said they were difficult to reach. (I’ve been a GoDaddy customer for years and I’ve never had to wait more than a few minutes for customer service, and the phone call is free).